


Daisy Bell

by paragraph (ebcdic)



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Holography, Loneliness, M/M, Robot/Human Relationships, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 14:39:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12633126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebcdic/pseuds/paragraph
Summary: Jensen is a lonely space traveler. Jared is a dog or a cup of tea or a really hot guy, depending on his mood.





	Daisy Bell

Jensen is running through the bowels of a star craft, his boots pounding on the gangplanks, hands slapping into walls as he turns corners, blindly dodging microbots doing repairs and securitrons that warn him to halt and present himself for an electronic scan, because Jensen doesn't have credentials to be on this ship and the whole legion of cybernetic soldiers behind him knows it. He has less than ten minutes to make it back to his ship, the Half-Life, before it undocks and leaves without him. 

"Jensen, you've got nine minutes to get your ass back here," Jared warns over Jensen's comm link.

Jared is the Half-Life's intelligence system. He's not human, but a bunch of bits and bytes in a server, and a hologram that appears on the bridge and mans the controls. A beautiful hologram, but a hologram nonetheless. 

"Jesus, I'm working on it," Jensen mutters under his breath, putting on speed.

He's only got three more turns to take before he hits the access tunnel to the docking station. The first two turns are devoid of life, robot or otherwise, but on the third turn, Jensen nearly runs smack into a securitron.

"Halt," it states in its robotic tone, the laser used for both scanning and killing concentrated on Jensen's right eye. 

"Aww, shit," Jensen mutters before diving under the securitron's hovering form, just missing getting sliced to pieces by a laser beam.

He does a summersault around the next turn and dives through the open access tunnel, scrambling on his hands and knees to get to the docking station. 

"Two minutes," Jared sing-songs.

"Fucking wise-ass computer," Jensen snarks as he exits the tunnel and runs at full speed up the ramp and into his ship.

"You look like shit," Jared's holographic form says with a smirk.

Jensen looks up from where he's currently sprawled on the floor and gives him the finger. "Just get us out of here."

They're cruising through the Delta solar system by the time Jensen's cleaned himself up. He flips the platinum chip he stole between his fingers, humming as he makes his way to the bridge. Jared is sitting in the captain's chair, sipping a cup of tea; both holographic, but over the past few years, starting to seem pretty real to Jensen, what with the lack of other human company.

"All of that for a chip we could've bought at the flea market on Andreas Seven?" Jared huffs.

"This is no ordinary chip," Jensen says as he slots it into the ship's console. "It's a cloaking shield. No one can read the signature or call numbers of the Half-Life."

"So we can steal more tech, right?" Jared replies, his tone clearly indicating that not only does he already know the answer, but he doesn't agree with it.

"Don’t act like it's such a bad thing." Jensen turns and points at Jared. "You wouldn't exist if it wasn't for my pirating ways."

Jared's form abruptly changes into that of a girl, complete with ripped bodice and long skirts. "Oh, don't make me walk the gangplank," Jared says breathily.

Jensen shakes his head. "You make a really ugly girl."

"Now you've hurt my feelings." Jared's form changes into that of a puppy with big, sad eyes. The puppy whimpers and paws at the chair it's sitting on.

"Right," Jensen snorts. 

Jared switches back to his normal form with a sigh. "I hate when you get a god complex."

"That totally wasn't a god-like reaction and even if it was; I created you from nothing so I guess that does make me your god now, doesn't it?" Jensen retorts.

"Sure it does," Jared smirks.

"Just get us to the Omega system, planet Delphinium, huh?" Jensen sighs.

"As you wish," Jared grins.

It takes a week to get to Delphinium. Jensen spends the majority of the trip down in his lab working on constructing weapons from scrap metal and electronics. That's his bread and butter, what allows him to travel the universe looking for more advanced tech for the Half-Life. Jensen's goal has been to make his ship the most advanced one anyone has ever seen, so he can finally steal what he's been after since the beginning. And now that he has this new chip, he's ready to go after it.

A vessel. Not a ship, but something akin to an android; a body to house Jared's personality and memories, something real that Jensen can touch: a friend, companion, someone with which to share the journey. That's why Jensen had created Jared in the first place; a computer to run the ship was all fine and good, but he'd go crazy without someone to hold a conversation with him. Of course he had written the program and adjusted it so the personality complimented his own, but he never intended to make it a romantic compliment too. Jensen may prefer computers and ships to people most days, but falling in love with his ship's artificial intelligence? That's beyond anti-social and into another realm of pathetic. 

"Oh master," Jared sing-songs over the comm. "Next stop, Delphinium. Any particular docking port or you just plan on orbiting it until we get shot down?"

Jensen stabs at his own comm link with a sigh. "The one on the island of Leeloos."

"The restricted one, of course," Jared says. "One potentially fatal landing coming up."

"Smartass. I oughta scrap your whole program," Jensen mutters, not meaning a word of it, of course.

Leeloos is the home base for the military on Delphinium. It's not even a natural island, but a huge platoon of naval ships tied together. It moves where it's needed when it's needed and can break off into hundreds of platoons within a moment's notice. This tactic makes complete sense considering that the planet is roughly ninety-percent water and the other ten-percent is a series of tropical islands each no larger the size of Hawaii on Earth. There are no land vehicles of any kind, just skiffs that move from island to island, and each beach is more beautiful than the last. It also happens to be home to the foremost robotics and genetic engineering authority within five galaxies.

"They're kind of shooting at us," Jared calls out five minutes later.

"Ugh." Jensen puts down the laser gun he was working on repairing and wipes his hands on his coveralls. "Open a link with them, would you?"

Jensen goes to the nearest terminal and patches himself into the main console. A few seconds later, the military captain of Delphinium appears on the screen, shouting in his native language. Jensen hits the translate button on his personal comm link and shouting is replaced with understandable words.

"Halt. You are not authorized to enter," the captain barks.

"Yeah, so, I kind of need to see the doctor," Jensen interrupts.

"Please provide proof of authorization or invitation."

"Right." Jensen holds up an ID he bought off a member of the Delphinium military in a bar. Okay, pick-pocketed is probably more accurate. "This work?"

"Authorization accepted, please dock in section Bravo."

The transmission cuts off abruptly and Jensen rolls his eyes. "Military."

Jared guides the Half-Life into the docking station while Jensen cleans up and clips the ID to his jumpsuit. The ID will probably be discovered as a fake within an hour, but by then, Jensen plans to be out of there. He taps his foot impatiently while Jared lowers the ramp so Jensen can step onto the deck of the island.

"What's the rush, boss?" Jared asks.

"Just don't be surprised when I come running back here asking you to get us the fuck out of here," Jensen answers before walking down the ramp and onto the island.

Immediately Jensen is greeted by a military liaison. "Welcome back to Leeloos, sir."

"Yeah, awesome. Take me to the doctor, huh?" Jensen strides past the woman, hoping the whole 'act like you belong there and no one will question you' thing actually works.

"Right this way, sir."

The woman leads Jensen to a small hovercraft and climbs inside, gesturing Jensen into the passenger seat. They fly over several of the platoons before diving down into a hull of one of them, twisting and turning through hallways until finally stopping at a portal. 

"Here you are, sir."

"Thanks."

Jensen hops off the hovercraft, hoping he can even remember all the twists and turns it took to get here, and presses the call button on the door. It slides open, revealing a lab that goes on for as far as the eye can see. Microbots and people move from station to station, calling out readings, making notations, and comparing results. Emerging from the crowd, the doctor comes forward, his hand held out to shake Jensen's.

"Our distinguished guest," he greets. "A pleasure to meet you. How can I be of assistance?"

"I'm here to see the vessel," Jensen says, cutting right to the chase.

"It's not quite ready for military use, sir. We haven't built in a personality or any behavior parameters."

"Yeah, that's exactly why I want it. Box it up and put it on my ship."

"I'll need official transfer papers to do that," the doctor answers hesitantly.

"Oh, those. They got stuck in the printer. You know how it is." Jensen waves his hand. "My assistant will have them to you soon."

"Perhaps I should call the¬—"

Jensen sighs. "Don't be such a bureaucrat."

Bureaucrat is such a dirty word to people like the doctor. They want to be seen as creative and forward-thinking, not paper pushers. Jensen is counting on it. If not, there's always his trusty laser pistol.

"Oh, well. I suppose just this once," the doctor acquiesces. 

"Awesome," Jensen beams.

Within two hours, the vessel is loaded onto Jensen's ship and the small crew that brought it over are waving goodbye as the ramp on the Half-Life is pulled back up like Jensen is a departing relative. Jensen waves back, calling out promises to visit soon that he totally doesn't mean, until the hatch is sealed shut.

"Suckers," Jensen snickers.

"I was expecting more running and gunfire," Jared says from the main console. 

"What? I can be nice," Jensen protests.

Jared snorts. "Yeah. Let me guess, get us out of this galaxy as fast as I possibly can?"

"It's like you read my mind," Jensen confirms dryly. 

Jensen disappears into his lab with the vessel as soon as Jared's back is turned. He's already got everything set-up; he just needs to pull it all together. It's a delicate operation to take Jared's personality and memories out of the Half-Life's mainframe, switch the ship to auto-pilot, and then transfer all the information into the vessel's brain, which is essentially a very expensive hard drive. He works for hours at it without taking a break, making sure each component of the vessel is working perfectly before he even attempts to bring it online. Entering parameters to make the skin and muscles on the vessel mold into the human Jared most often appears as in holographic form: a young, floppy-haired guy with a beautiful smile.

When it's time to boot it up, Jensen takes a deep, steadying breath, before starting up the sequence. He sits on the edge of his seat, watching the vessel as each system comes online, exhaling in relief every time one completes correctly. Finally the vessel—no, Jared—wakes up, eyes blinking against the harsh light of the lab. 

"Jared?" Jensen asks tentatively as he stands up, hovering at the edge of the gurney.

"Jensen? What…?" Jared glances around and then pulls his arms up to stare at his hands. "How?"

"I didn't go to Leeloos to get more tech. I went there to get a vessel. This vessel." Jensen bites his lip. "Your body."

"But why?" Jared asks, looking adorably confused.

"I kind of love you?" Jensen answers, biting his lip even harder.

Jared grins, showing off a dimple. "So you do have a heart."

"Hey!" Jensen cries indignantly.

"And I love you too," Jared quickly adds, grabbing Jensen's wrist to pull him closer. "I think. My old program didn't allow for emotions, necessarily. Or physical reactions. Does your stomach flutter strangely when you're in love?"

Jensen laughs, mostly in relief. "Sometimes. It could also be illness."

Jared sits up and pulls Jensen into the v of his legs. "I think this form is immune to all known pathogens."

"Yeah?" Jensen grins. "Good to know."

"But we can test that theory with an exchange of fluids," Jared amends.

"Umm." Jensen brushes his fingers lightly down Jared's neck. "I hope that's your very scientific way of saying 'have sex with me, Jensen' and not something involving petri dishes."

In answer, Jared just reels Jensen in closer before kissing him softly. Jensen wraps his arms around Jared's neck, digging his fingers into Jared's hair, as he kisses Jared back for all he's worth. He's been waiting for years to have this moment and every piece of stolen tech, every near-death experience, was totally worth it.


End file.
